Tag Archives: Westworld

“I can’t imagine a future without robots.”–Nolan Bushnell

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In the popular HBO series Westworld, robotic hosts are depicted as being placed into a kind of psychiatric analysis by their creators. Could this actually happen one day? Joanne Pransky thinks it will. She bills herself as the World’s First Robotic Psychiatrist® (yes, she even registered that title!). She was dubbed the real life Susan Calvin by Isaac Asimov, after the robot psychologist he created in his classic 1950 short story anthology, I, Robot. In this episode of the Seeking Delphi™ podcast, host Mark Sackler talks to her about this and other significant issues in the man/machine relationships to come.

“We’re going to become caretakers for the robots. That’s what the next generation of work is going to be.”–Gray Scott

I’m not worried about depressed robots. But I am worried about masses of people being depressed about robots. Or any other form of autonomous system, for that matter. How we use them, how we communicate and interact–and ultimately control them–is critical. IEEE, ever in the forefront of maintaining standard practices and ethical approaches to technology, is directly in the fray on this one, with its Initiative on Symbiotic Autonomous Systems. Roberto Saracco, a noted computer scientist and educator from Turin, Italy, is co-director of the initiative; he joins me for this episode of Seeking Delphi.™

“I want to die on Mars; just not on impact.”–Elon Musk

Mr. Musk

No. Really. This is The Future This Week. It only seems like Elon Musk This Week. Indeed, there is at least one twitter account dedicated exclusively to Elon Musk news. If forced to make a prediction, I’d say there will be enough material for a 24/7 Elon Musk cable news channel by next year. When it comes to inventing the future, nobody tops Elon. Tesla, SpaceX, Solar City, Neuralink, Hyperloop One (OK, that last one isn’t his company, but hyperloop is his idea). You get the idea. He’s all over the place; with some of this stuff he might actually be successful. Like Babe Ruth, he may set a home run record but strike out a lot in the process.